El título primordial de San Miguel Xicalco, siglo XVII. Memoria, historia y reproducción cultural

Abstract

This article deals with a historiographical review focused on primordial titles elaborated in the viceregal period, as inexhaustible sources in understanding the historical reality of the Indians towns. Likewise, it presents an analysis of the content of the primordial title of Xicalco, which is integrated by pictographs and writing. It has been problematized about the circumstances of its elaboration, based on the historical memory of the ancient foundation and its long-term significance. The originality of this work lies in the fact that the content of this manuscript has not been studied, a discourse that seeks to demonstrate and corroborate the ancestral origin of this third-generation population. The latter forms the narrative that emphasizes the recognition of the space of the people and of the patron saint, both as an instrument of identity and legitimation of its existence as a political corporation. Thus, we have verified that the inhabitants of Xicalco, through the primordial title, dated 1640, and the 2018 Declaration, recovered the historical memory to ensure their power over their land. During the viceroyalty they had to face the advance of the Spanish farmers, on the territory of ancestral inheritance; in the 20th century they faced intra-urban immigration, the sale of land and communal assets that threatened the customs of the inhabitants of Xicalco. For this article we have consulted two primary sources, one of them located in the General Archive of the Nation (AGN), the primary title of San Miguel Xicalco, which is part of the branch Collection of Documents and Land Titles that were transferred to this site from the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform of Mexico; the second is the Declaration of the original towns of San Miguel Xicalco.